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Yellow | Hoffa Administration Sells Kroger Pension Deal To Members!

Freightmaster1

Freightmaster1

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Check out this letter from the IBT Warehouse Director and 5 Local officers where they try to sell this deal to the Kroger Teamster members. Sounds like a pretty good deal for Kroger and their Teamster employees doesn't it? It DOES NOT sound like a good deal for the Central States Pension Fund. Central States has already stated that this will hurt the CSPF, and oh, by the way, is against federal (ERISA) law!

Kroger wants to pull out of the CSPF but NOT pay the withdrawal liability which is around $1Billion! The Hoffa Administration will have to come up with a better plan than this! There's no way Central States will agree to this! If Kroger wants to pull their employees out of the CSPF, then they will have to cough up that $1Billion!

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The rest of the IBT/Kroger "sales propaganda" can be read at...

http://www.ibtkrogerpension.com/

:wtflol::6792::busted:
 
Ok I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack and I'm not in Central States but if those involved don't mind I want to ask a question. No disrespect to anyone but,

Why Kroger? Why not, Say ABF? Or some other company(S)? It's not so much that I say yeah for the members at Kroger But if Central States is so bad why can't the International add other companies to this new fund And protect all the members in Central States? I could go on & on &on but I'll stop here.

What am I missing here?
 
Absolutely beyond belief. When I first read about this deal I just couldn't believe it. While I'm not an ERISA attorney this was contrary to any understanding I had about ERISA, multiemployer pensions and fiduciary responsibility. It has always been my understanding that the PRIMARY LEGAL FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY of the Funds trustees its to the participants of the fund. Not only would this deal violate that responsibility but as I understand multiemployer plans it would violate ERISA law period. Note that the material provided by the IBT mentions that CSPF would have to agree to the transfer and that the response from CSPF has not been receptive to accepting the plan. Why didn't the negotiators think of that before they agreed to any such plan? Did these people think they could just enter into a collective bargaining agreement that ignores pension law and CSPF would just roll over for them? If this deal is approved as written (I don't think it can be) whats to stop all other contributing employers from getting the same deal? If by some stretch of the imagination this were to happen it would be good for the lawyers. I can see it now. PBGC v CSPF, CSPF v IBT & Kroger, CSPF participants v CSPF,PBGC,IBT & Kroger. As you can tell this proposal leaves me absolutely amazed.
 
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LEHIGH vALLEY said:
Ok I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack and I'm not in Central States but if those involved don't mind I want to ask a question. No disrespect to anyone but,

Why Kroger? Why not, Say ABF? Or some other company(S)? It's not so much that I say yeah for the members at Kroger But if Central States is so bad why can't the International add other companies to this new fund And protect all the members in Central States? I could go on & on &on but I'll stop here.

What am I missing here?
Click to expand...
All employers who are participants in multiemployer plans are closely watching what happens with this "deal"! If Kroger is somehow able to wiggle out of the CSPF without paying the full withdrawal liability (rumored to be about $1Billion), then the floodgates will open and ABF Freight and many other of the over 1600 employers contributing to the CSPF will pull out too! Other multiemployer plans will have their contributing employers pulling out of their plans too! Why did the IBT negotiate something like this? Call President Hoffa and his Warehouse Director Steve Vairma and ask them :wtflol:!
 
Freightmaster1 said:
All employers who are participants in multiemployer plans are closely watching what happens with this "deal"! If Kroger is somehow able to wiggle out of the CSPF without paying the full withdrawal liability (rumored to be about $1Billion), then the floodgates will open and ABF Freight and many other of the over 1600 employers contributing to the CSPF will pull out too! Other multiemployer plans will have their contributing employers pulling out of their plans too! Why did the IBT negotiate something like this? Call President Hoffa and his Warehouse Director Steve Vairma and ask them :wtflol:!
Click to expand...
How is Kroger getting around the 1 billion dollar buyout? And how can the International make a deal like this without the buyout?
I know Hoffa thinks he can do whatever he wants but I don't see this working without the billion dollar buyout.
 
I thought if the union employee's voluntarily vote away a pension plan, then nothing is owed? I thought this is how Wegmanns pulled out of NYS Pension fund?
 
sabresfan said:
Wegmans paid the buyout to exit the NY plan.
Click to expand...

i'm surprised those guys went for that, didn't they kick in enough to have a pretty big pension? what happened, did the company threaten to shut down the union operation in Rochester and run everything out of the non union Pottsville warehouse?
 
buffalobill said:
i'm surprised those guys went for that, didn't they kick in enough to have a pretty big pension? what happened, did the company threaten to shut down the union operation in Rochester and run everything out of the non union Pottsville warehouse?
Click to expand...
From what I've read the NY plan is already less than 50% funded and in a short period of time will only be about 35% funded. It sounds like the NY teamsters allowed this as to not run into any future problems with wegmans. In all reality with the fund failing that bad its best to begin to let profitable companies out of these plans. If the teamsters want to attract the next generation of drivers they have to have something that will be there for them.
 
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